Scorpion Men
Scorpion Men have three seperate sub-quests you have to tackle to earn Rune Stones before you can gain entry to the Lair of the Scorpion King. 'Tiamat - To Scorpion Men Hall of Combat - ' While you can actually do these subquests in any order, I am just going to work my way clockwise around the hub map. To the Left transition, you will work your way towards the Hall of Combat. Guess what task you will have to perform? Fighting, of course. You will need to make your way from the transition to the map as shown (mid-right corner) where a hidden stairway leads to an entrance inside the canyon. Tricky scorps! If you have entered the Hall of Combat, be aware that touching/opening the Altar here will start spawning the Scorpion Men who will challenge you to a constant battle to the death. They will spawn off the three dais areas one at a time (although 3-4 to start the combat). Make sure you don't kill them too quickly or they will not keep spawning. You have to kill a certain number of them before they stop coming in order to earn the Rune Stone for Combat. When the spawns finally stop, then go back to the Altar and it will drop your Rune Stone. 'Tiamat - To Scorpion Men Hall of Pain - ' You made it through the first challenge, but the Scorpion Men Hall of Pain is not for the casual adventurer. This one will require some very specific...skills.... specifically a level or two of Rogue with a medium-high Search and Disarm Traps skill set. To get to the Hall of Pain from the Scorpion Men "hub" area, head straight to the top of the map for the transition. Go up the switchback staircase in the cliff wall and prepare to enter the Hall. Once inside, you find yourself staring down a very long hallway filled back to back with glaring red traps... if your Search skill is high enough. If not, you are in for that "pain" thing the hall was named for. The traps do different things to you if triggered and you don't successfully Reflex Save. Various spikes, fire, sonic damage, plus instant death and very very long periods of paralyzation will ensue. If you can't see the traps or if you can see but are unable to disarm them, it is recommended to enlist the help of someone who can or this single room could take you an hour to get through. (With a good rogue, it can be done in less than 5 minutes.) To the Left and Right of the main hallway are chests at the very top of the room (that's right, two chests). Each one contains a Rune Stone you need to gain entry to the Scorpion King. Oh, and there are more traps in those side rooms. When you finally have both stones, return to the Scorpion Men hub area. Tiamat - To Scorpion Men Hall of Puzzles - From the Scorpion Men hub area, the Hall of Puzzles transition is located in the upper right corner. Go up another switchblade staircase to reach the Hall of Puzzles. Inside the Hall of Puzzles, there is an Altar and three portals that are lit up. The portals will take you to the Puzzle Challenges. You only need to successfully complete two of the Puzzle Challenges to earn your last Rune Stone. (NOTE: You only have one chance to get the Puzzle solved correctly or you botch they whole effort.) Starting from the portal closes to the Altar (Puzzle Challenge #1), enter the portal and find yourself in a room with a creature called Frip, the Fairy. He is having issues figuring out how to get enough drinks to all of his friends. If you aren't good with puzzles, just answer the sequence with ''' '''1, 5, 4, 5, 1, 5, 4 to solve the puzzle. A portal will appear to take you back to the main puzzle room when you are successful. Enter the middle portal to start Puzzle Challenge # 2. DO NOT ENTER PUZZLE #2 WITH A SUMMONS!!! This puzzle is an educated guess as to which creature to kill attack. If you made the mistake of bringing a summons in, he will kill the nearest creature...which is wrong. The correct one is in the middle row, furthest back. When you have completed the second puzzle, return to the altar to retrieve your Rune Stone. Return to the Scorpion Men hub with all four Rune Stones and you can make your way to the Lair of the Scorpion Men. Tiamat - To Lair of the Scorpion King - From the Scorpion Men hub area, enter the transition on the bottom right side of the screen. This will take you to a small map with a temple structure and a sacred altar. Place all four Rune Stones on the altar and it will disappear, leaving a key behind on the ground which opens either door into the temple. This is the Lair of the Scorpion King (actually, he's just a Chief, but king sounds better)! Inside, you will find the Scorpion Chief and anywhere from 3 to 6 of his underlings. Kill them all and in his remains will be the Tiamat Stone you have worked so hard for! *Tiamat *Grand Vizier *Umu Demons *Cloak Dragons *Bullmen *Hunting the Rabid Dog *Lahmu's Palace